Cassani: I was right to quit Bid

Nearly eight months on from that difficult decision, Cassani says she is still confident she made the right choice.

"It was very difficult but I knew it was the right thing," she told Standard Sport. "I have always believed in life that if you do the right thing and try to do it in the right way, you can sleep at night and get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror. I believe that about my own behaviour."

For the time being, and in the interests of keeping the bid on track as it enters the home straight, Cassani refuses to be critical of the way her departure was handled.

She maintains it was her decision to stand aside for Coe and that the bid is in good shape as it enters its last six months.

But there has to be a measure of sympathy for 43-year-old Cassani, who made her name setting up no-frills airline Go, before it was sold to EasyJet in 2002, netting her a £9.5 million personal fortune.

It must have been a major blow to her and considering the high stakes it is amazing that her allies did not indulge in much backbiting.

At the bid's offices in Canary Wharf, it is said that even after resigning her £150,000-a-year post, Cassani had to be 'persuaded' by Coe and Mills to stop trying to run the campaign.

However it was undeniably the right decision and since she took a back seat, London's campaign has gone from strength to strength.

Cassani still accepts offers to give talks about the bid and, as a London 2012 board member, she still regularly has meetings with Coe and Mills about tactics.

She will travel to the Singapore vote but she is unlikely to be given a high-profile role in the presentation. Does she have any regrets that she won't be given the credit if London wins?

She admitted today that she knew just two weeks after taking the job that she was not the right person to lead London through the complex political world of the IOC.

She said: "I realised quite quickly that under the new regime in the Olympic world, if you don't already have strong ties with sport and with the Olympic family, there is really no time nor opportunity to build strong enough relationships to be able to be effective as the leader."

Cassani maintains she was the right person to get the campaign off the ground. But she decided to quit after feeling lost in the international sports world. She added: "I did have to ask myself if I would be the right person to make sure we won. I decided the best thing was to step back to enable those people with those relationships and that immediate connection with sport to do the job. Sport is what Seb Coe is all about. For me it is my hobby."

Since her work was reduced to one day a week, she has spent more time with her family, dreaming up new business ventures. Since quitting she has turned down offers to appear on television and radio's Desert Island Discs..

"I don't crave attention," she said. "The things you get from being in the newspapers or being on TV are not things I value. Does it help me be a better business person ? No. Does it help me be a better wife or mother? No. Does it help me be a better person - not really.

"A high profile is only as good as what it helps you to achieve. I felt with the bid it was important for me to be available to the press because I was explaining why this was something that was important, worthwhile and exciting. But fame is not something I crave. When I got invitations for TV and radio shows, I have said no. I would rather read a book."